The unsettling mystery of a missing hostess in Tokyo | Forensic Files

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early 2000 21 year-old Lucy Blackmon and her longtime best friend Louise Phillips
devised the plan to spend a few months living and working in Japan the pair had lived two seemingly parallel lives with
both working in an investment bank before commencing work as flight attendants for UK airline British
Airways Lucy's previous nine-to-five corporate job in London had left her bored and her expensive spending habits
had led her into debt she craved a life of adventure where she could travel internationally and experience different
cultures but couldn't afford to travel in style under the concept of backpacking held no appeal in 1998
Lucy's impressive customer service on short haul flights led to a promotion to the Intercontinental circuit not only
did her new role take her to exotic and glamorous destinations she also received
a healthy pay increase with bonuses for longer flights and generous daily meal allowances despite these perks the
initial appeal of her jet-setting career quickly faded Lucy soon found the job tiring and monotonous as her days became
a blur of in-flight meals and a generic hotel rooms her health began to decline as she was constantly jetlag and she had
fallen further into debt by spending more money than she was earning her best friend Louise Phillips was equally
disenfranchised and both women craved a new adventure Louise's older sister Emma had
previously been on a working holiday to Japan where she was employed as a hostess although Lucy wasn't clear
exactly what Emma's Japanese job had entailed she knew it involved bars waitressing
to the potential to earn a lot of money she became convinced hostessing presented a great opportunity to pay off
her debts while seeing more of the world and decided to leave her job at British
Airways to pursue the idea Lucy's family and friends were confused about her sudden decision to head
overseas and buy what exactly she planned to doing Japan Lucy's mother Jane had a particularly ominous feeling
about the trip and even considered hiding Lucy's passport to prevent her daughter from leaving before she
departed Jane snuck a guardian angel card and healing crystals into Lucy's luggage for protection Lucy was
seemingly unfazed by the concerns of those close to her in early 2000 she and Luiz obtained a 90 day tourist visas and
departed for Japan arriving in Tokyo on May 4 neither spoke Japanese until they were quickly overwhelmed by the enormity
of the foreign city prior to their arrival Lucy and Louise had arranged accommodation through Louise's sister
Anna who was no longer living in Tokyo but had booked a room for the girls through a friend the room was in a
gaijin house inexpensive hostel style accommodation rented to foreigners known for being cramped dirty and unsanitary
with a constantly rotating roster of inhabitants Sasaki house the place Lucinda Louise were staying was no
exception they quickly nicknamed their undesirable home away from home the shoot house and two tried to beautify
their small dingy room it wasn't long before Lucien DeLuise headed straight to the world-famous
party capital of Roppongi a district popular with tourists and backpackers the thriving entertainment district
featured many social haunts and hangouts with organized the Japanese crime syndicates the Yakuza known to have a
large presence in the area although efforts to clean up rock and ice lazy reputation were underway when Lucien
DeLuise arrived it was still very much a melting pot of sordid bars nightclubs strip clubs massage parlors and brothels
within a few days of their arrival a Japanese man approached the young women on the street and told them he could
help them find a jobs as hostesses he introduced them to the manager of a hostess bar called Club Casablanca where
both Lucy and to Louise were hired on the spot club Casablanca was an older slightly rundown Club with nine other
foreign hostesses working at the bar the concept of what exactly hostessing entails is complex but stems from the
geishas of the 17th century highly skilled women trained in the arts of dancing music costume conversation and
ceremonial tea service modern-day hostessing isn't quite as sophisticated but like the geishas before them her
hostesses job is to entertain young women many of whom are foreigners working illegally on tourist visas are
paid to smile while providing male clients with company flattery and often karaoke whilst serving them drinks and
snacks at over inflated prices [Music] hostess bars are hugely common in Japan and are a popular way for the
white-collar male workforce to entertain clients and relax in the sleazier clubs
of Roppongi the hostessing service can also include stripping and sex acts but this wasn't on the menu at Club
Casablanca there the hostesses were expected to appear available for the clientele but would lose their jobs if
they ever crossed the line into providing sexual services regardless the nature of the job mayn't conversation
with intoxicated clientele often turned intimate and it was degrading to the hostesses one former hostess described
to the work at Club Casablanca as follows you say what the men want to hear ng B what they want you to be
sometimes you have to play psychologist other times men come in and totally just
want to get drunk and party and want to go out to join them earning decent money
was based on a hostesses ability to gain as many regulars as possible in turn earning more money for the club
owners when clientele returned to the club and exclusively request to see a certain woman they pay extra for the
privilege resulting in a bonus for the hostess hostesses can secure an extra bonus by organizing a private dinner
date with customers known as dough hands although foreign visitors are not legally entitled to work on a tourist
visa it was known that Japanese authorities typically turned a blind eye to the act something club managers often
used as a bargaining chip for exploitation in terms of shifts and wages as Lucien to Louise learned at the ins
and outs of the job it quickly became clear that any hostess who didn't start accruing personal requests from regulars
or arranging multiple Dohan dates per month would lose her job within her first two weeks at Club Casablanca Lucy
gained a doting regular named Ken who visited her most days but the pressure to gain more private requests and Dohan
weighed on her heavily and exacerbated her insecurities she constantly compared herself to Louise who she felt was
getting far more attention from clients and adjusting better to their increasingly hectic social life outside
of work most nights after finishing at Casablanca Lucy and Louise would descend into Roppongi zhh nightlife dancing and
drinking with other expats and travellers until the early hours the cycle of working partying and sleeping
before doing it all again the next night began to exhaust Lucy the working holiday to pay off her debts wasn't
coming together at all like she had planned and the pressure to earned more at the club through bonuses was starting
to become overwhelming on May 26 2000 three weeks in Japan Lucy confessed her feelings in her diary writing on not
coping well here I can't pull myself out of this hole I've fallen into I feel so
ugly and fat and invisible in there I constantly hate myself I'm so [ __ ] up to my neck in debt and
so badly need to do well but on a crap hostess I'm so exhausted with feeling this [ __ ] and feeling so lonely I
sometimes really can't be bothered to wait and find out what happens I just want to disappear
[Music] [Music] by the start of July after two months in Japan Lucy was finally starting to feel more
at ease with her new foreign life she had recently began dating a young US Navy Marine stationed in Tokyo named
Scott and her spirits lifted as she began to fall head-over-heels the improvement in her mood seemed to have a
positive impact on her hostessing has she gained more regular clients at Club Casablanca and secured several more
Dohan dates Lucy seemed to be in a far better place and was starting to become more comfortable on the afternoon of
Saturday July 1 Lucy received a call on the Shedd payphone at Sasaki house where her into
Louise was still living the call was from a customer she had a pre-arranged to Dohan lunch date with who was calling
to advise he was running late and would ring back when he was ready to meet her at the train station a short while later
he called again to advise he was now ten minutes away Lucy didn't mention the man's name or say where they were going
for that date but she was excited because the customer had promised to give her a mobile phone
she and Louise both had the night off from work so they made a plan to meet up after Lucy's date later that evening
after making her way to sendagaya station to meet her date Lucy called the ways from her unnamed customers mobile
phone at 5:00 p.m. to let her know that were travelling to the seaside she assured the way she would still be home
in time for their night out as planned just after 7:00 p.m. the Waze received a second phone call from Lucy advising she
would be home within the hour she was in good spirits as this time she was calling from her new mobile phone gifted
by her date along with a bottle of champagne Lucy then called her boyfriend Skott but when there was no answer she
left a message advising she would meet up with him the following day two hours went by and Lucy still hadn't returned
home causing the waves to become increasingly worried she went to club Casablanca to report her concerns to
co-workers but they suggested that Lucy had simply decided to stay the night with her customer Louise felt strongly
that her friend would never do such a thing so she had a Japanese speaking co-worker call around to some of the
bigger hospitals in the area to check if anyone matching Lucy's description had been admitted but there had been no sign
of her unable to sleep the way spent the night wandering around Roppongi visiting
the clubs and bars that she and Lucy frequented to ask if anyone had seen her friend no one had anxious about their
illegal working status Louise hesitated about going to the police despite growing more and more panicked
Lucy didn't return home or make contact - during the remainder of the weekend by
the morning of Monday July 3 Louise who was so stressed she had barely slept finally filed a missing person report
with the azubu Police Station in Roppongi she didn't mention that Lucy had been working as a
hostess and was attending a Dohan date instead saying she had simply gone out on a day trip with a Japanese man she
had met the police didn't seem overly concerned about the missing Westerner after all
lucy was an independent adult who may have decided to continue traveling and had simply failed to notify anyone
disheartened by the lack of action Louise then went to the British Embassy in Tokyo and admitted the whole truth
telling the vice consul about Lucy's illegal hostessing work and to the fact she had gone to meet a customer on the
day she was last seen the embassy official was alarmed that the club would encourage such adings the vice consul
called as a bhoot police station to advise the embassy was extremely concerned about Lucy's well-being but
despite telling police they feared Lucy had been abducted the police still didn't seem overly concerned at
approximately 5:30 p.m. that afternoon Louise received a phone call on her mobile phone from an unknown man with a
strong Japanese accent and a good command of English the caller who identified himself as a Kira Takagi said
he was calling on behalf of Lucy he told the ways that the traffic had been bad on the night Lucy went missing so she
decided to take the train home instead of accepting a ride with her date at the train station she met a guru and on the
spur of the moment decided to join his cult the newly risen religion in the city of chiba the wilded the ways asked
to speak to Lucy but Akira said she wasn't feeling well and didn't want to talk to anyone although she might want
to talk later in the week he hung up abruptly the callback moments later explaining that Lucy had started a new
life and wouldn't be coming back he said she was now paying her debts back in a better way and wanted her friends to
know she was okay akira then asked the ways for her address in japan as he made it to send
some of Lucy's belongings back the ways evaded this request and in a bid to gain
more information asked if she too could join the cult she pleaded to speak to Lucy
but Akira rendered the call stating I'm sorry I just had to let you know that you won't be seeing her again
goodbye terrified Luiz returned to the British Embassy where she was advised to go back to the police station and admit
the whole truth about what Lucy had been doing when she vanished later that same
night a teary and distressed Louise finally worked up the courage to call Lucy's family in England to advise them
of her disappearance Lucy's mother Jane Stier had been preparing a care package to sent to Japan containing some of her
daughter's favorite sweets and cosmetics when she answered the call as she began
to absorb the bizarre news that Lucy was missing and had allegedly joined the Japanese cult a group of Lucy's friends
and her two younger siblings sister Sophie and a brother Rupert gathered at Jane's home to offer
their support and figure out what to do next Lucy's father Tim Blackman who had not
spoken to his ex-wife since their divorce several years earlier was also notified those close to Lucy were
certain the story that she had joined a cult was a complete fabrication they feared she had met with foul play
Lucy's 20 year old sister Sophie and ex-boyfriend Jamie decided to fly to Tokyo immediately to begin searching for
her Lucy's mother Jane didn't want to leave her teenage son Rupert alone in the UK so she made the tough decision to
stay at home on July 4 three days since Lucy had failed to return from her Dohan
date Sophie and Jamie departed for Tokyo where they spent a week paying multiple
visits to the British Embassy and to the a zaboo police station in Roppongi none of the visits proved helpful as the
police treated their concerns with the same indifference they had shown the weaves faced with the inaction of local
police Sofie spoke with her father Tim Blackmon in the UK and discussed going public with Lucy's story and enlisting
the help of the media to gain interest than help for her disappearance although they all held concerns that
going public may have an adverse impact and caused Lucy's abductor to panic and harm or kill her in the end the decision
was made for them as back in London Louise's sister Emma Phillips had already taken the story to British
newspaper The Daily Telegraph with the media now notified Lucy's disappearance was quickly
plastered throughout UK papers despite the public attention Tokyo police continued to show little interest in
pursuing an investigation frustrated the Blackmon family decided to embrace the media attention towards fullest in the
hopes their efforts would compel someone with information to come forward on July
12 eleven days into Lucy's disappearance her father Tim Blackmon made the overseas journey to join the search and
raised media awareness the next day Tim and his daughter Sophie held their first
press conference at the British Embassy in Tokyo imploring anyone who had seen Lucy to contact police reports that Lucy
suddenly abandoned her life to join a cult seemed unlikely to her family as she had never demonstrated much interest
in religion they also rejected claims she may have run away to escape her credit card debts describing the amount
of money she owed is manageable during a subsequent press conference Tim issued a passionate plea to loose
his abductor to release his daughter quote we are all starting to feel very desperate and upset that Lucy is kept
somewhere in difficult conditions where she will be extremely upset herself by therefore as her father beg of them
humbly to please just release her to us again I just can't begin to describe to this person or these people that
devastating sorrow we've been through and how we are being torn apart by Lucy being held away from us after this
emotional display media interest in the story intensified and two British reporters arrived to Japan in droves to
interview Tim and Sophie the father and daughter appearing on multiple TV shows in both the UK and Japan with the
increase the media attention putting pressure on the police to act the Tokyo Metropolitan Police upgraded at Lucy's
disappearance through a criminal investigation while out to dinner one night Tim and Sophie Blackman were
approached by a wealthy British expat named Hugh shake Schaaf who recognised them from their many media appearances
Suzy had been following Lucy's disappearance closely Hugh generously donated a 100 thousand pound reward for
information and offered the Blackmun's the use of his business officers in Roppongi as their operational base Tim
and Sophie used this opportunity to set up the Lucy Blackburn hotline where people who were hesitant about going to
the police could call in with information offers of assistance poured in from the UK with the Virgin Atlantic
airline conglomerate financing the advertisement of the hotline number Virgin's founder Sir Richard Branson
also offered financial assistance in the search the hotline which was staffed by experts
began operation 21 days into the search for Lucy calls came flooding in with many witnesses reporting seeing the
missing 21 year old but they had simply mistaken other blonde western women for Lucy the answering machine for the
hotline also recorded many bizarre messages including laughter strange rants and incoherent mumbling police
interviewed Lucy's US Marine boyfriend Scott as a person of interest but he had been aboard a naval ship on the day of
her disappearance Lucy's regular customer at Club Casablanca kan was also interviewed but
he too was eliminated as a suspect between July 21 and 23 the 26th annual g8 summit was held on the Japanese
island of Okinawa where world leaders from eight different countries including the United Kingdom and Japan came
together to discuss a range of global issues prior to the g8 summit British Prime Minister Tony Blair agreed to meet
with Tim Blackman to discuss Lucy's disappearance and gain an understanding of the issues the family were facing in
their efforts to find her this conversation prompted Tony Blair to discuss the case directly with Japanese
Prime Minister Oshiro Mori which propelled the Tokyo metropolitan police into further action a large number of
detectives were assigned to the case and 30,000 missing person posters featuring
a photograph of Lucy sitting on a sofa wearing a black dress we're distributed throughout Japan
supposed to used bilingual text in both the Japanese and English to describe the
21 year-old and urged anyone who had seen Lucy or had any information to contact their nearest police station a
police spokesperson told the media quote we are involved in a very difficult investigation since we have yet to
obtain a single tip that has led us to a major breakthrough Tim and Sophie with assistance from generous volunteers
walked the streets of Tokyo handing out the missing person fliers urging passers
buyer to come forward with any information on August 1 1 month after Lucy's disappearance Tokyo Police
received the type 2 letter allegedly written by the missing 21 year old the letter insisted she was fine urging her
family not to worry and to return to England where she would call them later however it appeared that whoever wrote
the letter was not a native English speaker as it was filled with all kinds of linguistic and grammatical errors
with police promptly dismissing it as a hoax on August 4 an exhausted Tim Blackmon returned home to the United
Kingdom leaving Sophie in Japan to continue the search for her sister despite police increasing their efforts
they continued to leave Lucy's family in the dark about any progress in the investigation soon after Tim arrived
home he received a startling phone call from a British man named Mike Hills who lived in Holland and claimed to have
contacts in the Japanese underworld mark said these figures had a vested interest
in finding Lucy as the resulting police pressure was impacting arms dealers and other Kusum members from effectively
conducting their unlawful business to ensure their dealings resumed to normal these gang members were willing to try
and find Lucy but their assistance came with a price Tim arranged to meet with my kills but before the meeting Mike
called back with the news that one of his contacts had discovered lucy was alive she had been kidnapped and sold by
a group involved in the trafficking of foreign women this contact could find her lucien to buy her back for the price
of $50,000 tim was deeply unsure about Mike's claim but was willing to take any chance to
find his daughter the two men met and Mike explained to Tim would have to make an on-the-spot payment of twelve and a
half thousand dollars to secure the deal he would then need to travel to Japan to
hand over an additional 25,000 dollars followed by a final payment of twelve and a half thousand to be paid once Lucy
was safely returned Tim paid the twelve and a half thousand in cash as instructed and quickly made his way back
to Japan upon his arrival my story took a turn Lucy was no longer in Japan but had been
smuggled out on a ship and was on her way to Hong Kong the ship could be intercepted but it would require an
additional payment of $10,000 desperate to save Lucy Tim handed over the money following this
transaction Mike's story constantly changed he continued to ask for more money despite seeming to be no closer to
retrieving Lucy eventually the course from Mike Hills stopped entirely and Tim was unable to contact him
leading to the stark realization that the vulnerable father had been conned Tim reported his experience to police
who discovered Mike Hills had an extensive criminal history for deception and theft having also scammed another
English family whose son had gone missing in South America for his lies to both families Mike Hills was later
charged with obtaining property by deception and sentenced to three and a half years in prison
of the scam Tim Blackmon later said it produced a huge strain on our family it was a terrible terrible thing that he
perpetrated on us he is absolutely evil he was preying on our family's misfortune and you cannot
get more evil than that throughout August Tim and Sophie Blackman continued to travel back and
forth between Japan and to the UK meaning the hotline and spending time in the hostess bars of Roppongi seeking any
information that might lead them to Lucy the dark side of Japan's hostessing industry soon came to light as they
heard many harrowing stories of foreign hostesses who had gone missing or experienced violence at the hands of
customers three years prior to Lucy's disappearance 27 year old Canadian hostess Tiffany Fordham disappeared
after she was last seen with the customer in the elevator of a Roppongi nightclub she was never seen again with
police conducting no efforts to find her other foreign hostesses reported incidents where customers had taken
advantage of them during Dohan dates with reports of drink spiking violence and rape as most hostesses were working
illegally a majority of these incidents were not reported to police and to the ones that were were rarely taken
seriously September 1 marked two months since Lucy Blackburn left for her Dohan date and
had never returned back in the UK her mother Jane and younger brother Rupert released 1002 balloons over the
cricket ground of Lucy's hometown to commemorate her 22nd birthday as the month wore on Lucy's family became
increasingly despondent they boosted the reward money for information in an attempt to generate new leads but all
this did was increased the number of false sightings placed to the hotline despite all their efforts nobody seemed
to have any information about Lucy's last movements or her whereabouts tensions began to rise between the
Blackmun's and Tokyo Police who insisted technical difficulties and complicated laws regarding the disclosure of private
information was stopping them from obtaining phone records from the caller who rang Louise on July 3 advising that
Lucy had spontaneously joined a cult they eventually said they were obtaining a court order to gain access to the
records but advised to Lucy's family to be patient as it would take some time in late September Lucy's mother Jane
traveled to Tokyo and to gave a press conference in which she implored of Lucy's captor to release her daughter
and to begged anyone with information to come forward stating it's the worst nightmare and it never goes away I feel
as if my heart has been ripped out as a family we will never give up looking for
Lucy and we will never take a no for an answer by early October Lucy's family were overwhelmed with all
kinds of challenges their makeshift Operations Center at the officers provided by hue Sheikh shaft had fallen
apart his hue felt Tim Blackman had abused his hospitality by disrespecting his staff ordering expensive dinners on
his tab and constantly inviting members of the media into the office for interviews
despite specifically being asked not to the relationship between Lucy's parents was also under strain and to their
visits to Japan was strategically timed to avoid one another this discord between the divorced couple spilled out
during media interviews putting increased stress on the family having spent tens of thousands of pounds flying
back and forth between Japan and the United Kingdom they were also burdened with financial
pressure exhausted and tired of feeling like the Tokyo Police were intentionally
shutting them out Lucy's mother father and sister felt they had hit a brick wall in their efforts reluctantly they
each departed Japan and returned home but unbeknownst to the family their heavy media presence had actually paid
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was an American woman who had been working as a hostess in Roppongi in 1997 as part of her duties she agreed to
visit a customer named Koji at the sushi marina apartment complex in the seaside
town of zou she located an hour's train ride from Tokyo after taking a sip of a drink Koji offered to her the woman
blacked out and awoke sit on the couch many hours later wearing nothing but her underwear with no memory of anything
that had happened Koji explained there had been a gas leak which had caused her to lose consciousness but the woman
suspected she had been trapped she reported the incident to the azubu police station with help from her
employer providing a description of Kody's appearance the location of his apartment and his mobile phone number
but her rapport was met with indifference she later described her ordeal in Richard Lloyd Perry's book
people who ate darkness quote the officers showed in no interest whatsoever to help or take any further
action they said they could not investigate my incident because of a lack of evidence I was made to feel as
if I were in nuisance and to wasting police time three years later the woman was still living in Tokyo when she heard
about Lucy Blackmun's disappearance reminded of her ordeal in Zushi years earlier she immediately returned to the
as abou police station to report concerns that the same man who attacked her could be the customer Lucy had
visited on the day she vanished the American woman wasn't the only former hostess who provided police with
information in 1995 a Scottish expat went on a series of extravagant Dohan dates with a wealthy customer who called
himself for Yugi Honda one night Yugi took his hostess to his seaside apartment where he asked her to drink a
rare wine more than 12 hours later she awoke in his apartment with no memory of what had happened she decided not to
report the incident to police but held on to yuji's mobile phone number just in case five years later when this woman
heard about lucy Blackmun's disappearance she traveled from her home in osaka to the as abou police station
to report her concerns that the man she knew as Yuji Honda could be involved although she felt her statement was met
with disinterest several other hostesses also came forward to report similar experiences ensuring police could no
longer ignore the similarities between witness accounts police were also finally granted warrants to access
telephone records and were able to trace two calls the one made by Lucy's customer to the Sasaki House pay phone
on the morning of her disappearance and to the call Lucy placed to her friend in
the ways from her customers mobile phone on the afternoon she vanished both calls
were traced to a mobile phone that had been purchased two using a fake name further analysis of the phone records
determined to both calls were made from the Zushi marina apartment complex the same location the American former
hostess had identified as the building where she was drugged back in 1997 by a man she identified as Koji several other
hostesses also identified the sushi marina as the location they were drugged and stripped naked but none were able to
remember the exact building or apartment number the incidents occurred police searched with the criminal
records of all apartment owners within the complex looking for anyone who had a history of sexual offences they made a
startling discovery 48 year-old Joe G ybarra was a wealthy property developer and a business owner who had been
arrested in 1998 for attempting to videotape unsuspecting women in public toilets he pled guilty to the crime and
was issued with a small fine when police showed a Joe Gees mug shot to the hostess's who had come forward claiming
to have been drugged and assaulted they unanimously identified a Joe G abara as their attacker police obtained CCTV
footage that revealed a luxury vehicle registered to Joe G abara had traveled to Tokyo on the day Lucy Blackburn went
missing police now felt confident they had identified their prime suspect but needed to concrete evidence before they
could make an arrest further investigation into ybarra revealed he also owned a property in the
blue C apartment complex on the Miura Peninsula a rugged coastline approximately 32 kilometres from Zushi 5
days after Lucy's disappearance the apartment manager of the blue sea building had phoned police to report one
of his residence had been making unusual sounds in his apartment local police visited the apartment and
found a shirtless Joe G abara dirty and covered in sweat with concrete residue on his hands he allowed the officers to
enter his home where they noticed the chunks of cement was strewn about along with a tool resembling a garden hoe and
a sack containing a large item Obara refused to let the officers inspect the rest of his apartment and as
they had to no warrant to proceed with a search they left the property at the time lucy Blackmun's disappearance
hadn't even made the news so attending officers had no reason to be overly suspicious of a borough but
now that he had become their prime suspect in Lucy's abduction this bizarre incident became highly suspicious
records revealed that Obara had recently purchased the boat which stood out to investigators as unusual considering he
had never owned one before and had no prior history of boating although there still wasn't enough evidence to arrest
him in relation to Lucy Blackmun's disappearance investigators became increasingly nervous that he may use
this new boat to dispose of evidence on October 12 police placed Joji ybarra under arrest for five charges of rape
for the reported assaults on other hostesses intending to build their case against him for Lucy's abduction once he
was in custody with abara now under arrest search warrants were granted for his many properties throughout Japan had
his largest property had decaying neglected mansion in the denon chofu district of southern Tokyo police were
confronted with a rubbish strewn yard containing several disused luxury cars including a Maserati the classic early
1960s Aston Martin and a Bentley the house held decades have accumulated clutter broken televisions old car
batteries and to dust covered furniture a large freezer contained to the frozen body of a dead dog which I borrow later
explained had been his favorite pet he had frozen the body in the hopes that technological advancements would one day
allow the dog to be restored to life or cloned included in piles of evidence seized from Oh borrows denon trophy
mansion and other properties were piles of Diaries notebooks documents videotapes rolls of film audio cassettes
and photographs the Diaries and audio recordings dated all the way back to oberus teenage years outlining in
meticulous detail his sexual fetishes fantasies and experiences in what he referred to as conquest play her
Burroughs records revealed a prolific sexual predator his method of assaulting women was always the same he would pick
up a hostess or occasionally a woman who advertised in Lonely Hearts classified ads and would then covertly administer
some sort of tranquilizer within her food or drink if the woman had concerns about the strange taste he would explain
that drink was rare or the food contained special herbs once the woman was rendered unconscious he proceeded to
rape her in one gauri entry Jabara admitted he had no sexual interest in women who were
conscious his Diaries detailed the various drugs he used to render women unconscious along with a rating of their
effectiveness a dozen different types of drugs were recovered from his properties
including chloroform sleeping pills barbiturates rohypnol and a GHB giorgia bars prolific history as a
violent sex offender was further evident within a large collection of videotapes
dating back to the 1980s many of which featured a woman's name written along the spine the tapes were recorded using
a tripod mounted camera with bright lights capturing the full extent of a bar as depraved attacks off-camera
a television monitor displayed the assault so abara could watch it as it was happening while another played a
pornographic film on camera and naked Obara wore a mask that matched that worn by the fictional characters Zorro a
strip of black fabric with holes cut for the eyes pulled across the upper face and tired at the back of the head he
would carry his unconscious victim to bed before subjecting them to repeated acts of sexual assault with many attacks
lasting upwards of 12 hours in the event that a woman's third or awoke during an
assault Obara would administer a chemical soaked rag over their mouths to once again
render them unconscious when the woman awoke after the attack feeling disoriented and sick often vomiting and
unable to stand Obara would provide a vague explanation for how they came to pass here including
that there had been a gas leak or that the woman drank too much alcohol the exact number of videotapes recovered
by police is uncertain with reports ranging from 200 to 1000 with the recorded names and videotape footage
police identified both the American and Scottish women who had come forward during the Lucy Blackmon investigation
and who they were also able to trace many of the other survivors many of the women refused to cooperate with the
investigation preferring to forget their ordeal however several were willing to proceed with pressing charges
despite uncovering a long list of women who had been violated by giorgia borough
investigators were unable to find anything in his Diaries or video tapes to confirm Lucy Blackmon was one of his
victims but they did find strands of long blonde hairs in the bathroom of Obara Zushi marina apartment they were
tested for DNA and came back with a match the DNA sequence match hairs taken from Lucy's Tokyo apartment and two
samples that had been provided by her family several rolls of film found on oberus property were later developed and
also provided concrete evidence that Lucy had entered his apartment there amongst the images were two photographs
of Lucy smiling as she posed on the balcony of his sushi marina apartment furthermore the phone Lucy had used to
call Lewis Phillips on the day she went missing was also recovered providing another director link between Lucy and
he accused receipts from multiple stores revealed that on July 4 just three days
after Lucy vanished Obara had purchased several suspicious items that would assist with the
disposal of a body including cement large camping tarps gloves a shovel and axe and a chainsaw police now felt
confident that Lucy had been drugged assaulted and subsequently murdered by Obara but without locating her body
they could prove was that the two had met in November 2000 one month after his initial arrest ho burrows lawyer issued
a statement in which he denied any knowledge of Lucy Blackmun's disappearance he also insisted the
assaults captured on video were consensual acts of conquest play which each of the women had entered into
voluntarily in exchange for money Obara said he believed to police had set him up ending the statement with I hope they
catch the real criminal soon in the United Kingdom Lucy's family were provided with no
information other than the fact that an arrest had been made they had the source
information about oberus predatory history and his many survivors from media reports rather than police Lucy's
father expressed his frustration in an email address to the Tokyo Metropolitan Police reproduced in Richard Lloyd
Perry's book people who eat darkness tim wrote i am very upset and traumatized that the police did not give a single
consideration to how the family feels as victims and it is disgraceful and inhumane that you do not provide any
news or information to the family to help them cope with this terrible and tragic event tim blamed to the fear of
being deported for young hostesses not reporting crimes committed against them during their work duties and questioned
why the reports about joe gia borrow from other hostesses had not been investigated in the past quote this
makes the police guilty of the disappearance of lucy and when the next girl is abducted and raped or murdered
the police and the Immigration Department will be guilty of that crime too as reports of viboras disturbing
crime spread across the world there was another family that had a strong reaction to the news in 1992 the family
of 21 year old Australian Corita Ridgeway were left devastated when she died under mysterious circumstances
while working in Tokyo carita a model waitress and aspiring actor who had many friends had moved to
Tokyo in December of 91 to join her sister Samantha for a working holiday hoping to save some money for the acting
classes she was attending back home in Sydney she had also recently gotten engaged to her boyfriend Robert and was
eager to put some financial savings towards their life together having spent the last few years traveling to Nepal
Mexico into the United States carita was a worldly and confident traveler in Japan she intended to find a job
teaching English but when that plan wasn't immediately successful she responded to a job ad in the newspaper
for hostessing work at club a Akagi in the upmarket Ginza district known for its exclusive restaurants and designer
stores hostessing at club a Akagi involved the same task that Lucy Blackmon had undertaken o'clock
Casablanca chatting with customers while stretching their drinks and lighting their cigarettes
although carita didn't enjoy the work she was making good money and it didn't expect to be doing it for long before
she could return home with our savings on the night of Friday February 14 1992 carita along with several other club a
Akagi hostesses accepted an invitation from a customer to dine externally on a group Dohan and a nearby restaurant
Caritas sister Samantha had spent that weekend out of town when she returned to their share house on Sunday morning
another housemate informed Samir thought that her sister wasn't at home someone had phoned the house and left a vague
voice message saying corrida had gone away for the weekend with friends by Monday morning carita still hadn't
returned home and Samantha was becoming increasingly worried she then received a
phone call from the local hospital explaining her sister had been admitted with severe food poisoning a Japanese
man calling himself Akira Nishida had dropped a crater off that morning providing hospital staff with some
this phone number according to Nishida who left abruptly without providing any identification corrida had developed
food poisoning after eating bad shellfish Corita was non-responsive in slipping in and out of consciousness
she was diagnosed with acute liver failure and by the time her mother annette father Nigel and fiancé Robert
reached Japan she was near unresponsive Samantha attempted to communicate with her sister but all Kirino could manage
was holding out her hand wanting it to be held the doctors were at a loss to explain how the 21 year old had become
so ill so quickly they performed an expensive blood washing liver procedure but with no success the toxins in
Korea's body soon overwhelmed her system turning her skin yellow Corita fell into
a coma and was placed on life support as her devastated family stood by and watched on helplessly as carita lay
unresponsive in hospital her sister Samantha received several calls from Akira Nishida who provided the same
story about corrida falling ill after eating shellfish he refused to provide his phone number or address so Samantha
reported the phone calls to the police and urged them to investigate the caller sued detectives eventually interviewed
Samantha who described her interaction with law enforcement as threatening and hostile and felt no effort was made to
find Akira Nishida in the hope that better facilities might improve her chances of survival carita was
transferred to the Tokyo women's University Hospital in Shinjuku but pronounced the brain dead shortly after
her arrival on Saturday February 29 just three days before her 22nd birthday caritas family made the difficult
decision to switch off her life support with doctors ruling hepatitis E as the cause of her death
caritas body was dressed in a pink kimono and covered in flowers before being taken to a buddhist shrine in the
hospital's basement where the intensive care staff lit incense sticks in her honor carita was cremated
two days later traumatized from Caritas unexpected death the Ridgeway family made no request to have an autopsy
conducted prior to the cremation however the small sample of her liver had been taken whilst the doctors were attempting
to save her life and was still retained on file by the hospital shortly after her sister's death
Samantha Ridgeway was once again contacted by the man identifying himself as a Kieran Ishida when he learned that
Kurata had passed away he insisted on meeting with her parents to offer his condolences and explained the events of
their daughter's final weekend Annette and Nigel Ridgeway met in a shader in a hotel near the Tokyo Airport
he was immaculately dressed although sweating profusely as he explained he had brought carita back to his house
after dinner as she had fallen ill from eating oysters her condition soon deteriorated and he called a doctor to
administer an injection for the nausea when the injection didn't work he drove her to hospital Annette and Nigel noted
Nishida seemed at desperate to convince them he had tried to care for their daughter he expressed his intense
affection for her saying he loved carita and had wanted to spend much more time with her he presented a net in Nigel
with a diamond ring and a gold necklace that he had planned to give to Corina for her birthday and insisted on paying
for her funeral transferring the funds to Samantha's Japanese bank account after this bizarre meeting Caritas
parents sent fiancé Robert flew back to Australia with corridas ashes there was no further investigation into her death
then nine years later as reports of Giorgio Barris crimes made their way into the Australian media the
waise noticed chilling similarities for the circumstances of corridas death and when they saw a picture of georgie abara
they immediately recognized him as the man who had introduced himself as akira ishida
following this revelation Caritas former fiancé Robert immediately contacted the
Australian Embassy in Tokyo who alerted police as it turned out the Japanese authorities had already made the
connection between curry to Ridgeway and Choji ybarra amongst the piles of paperwork seized from a Baris Zushi
marina apartment was a receipt for Caritas hospital admission additionally one of the videotapes from a virus
extensive collection featured an unconscious carita as she was raped by Obara during which he dosed her with a
liquid soap drag to ensure she remained unconscious he detailed the assault in one of his diary entries riding beside a
Caritas named too much chloroform the Peace of Caritas liver that had been removed by doctors prior to her death in
1992 was recovered and tested the sample was found to contain traces of chloroform a highly volatile organic
compound intended to be used for an aesthetic purposes when administered in excessive doses the drug poisons the
liver and can lead to death although the presence of chloroform had not been tested or detected by doctors when
carita was still alive there was now no doubt that her death was due to chloroform poisoning the funds the
Samantha Ridgeway had received to help pay for her sister's funeral were traced and to led directly back to Giorgio
Barra in January 2001 corridas mother annette Ridgeway traveled to Tokyo and formally
identified at Barra as Akira Nishida the man she and her husband had met with following caritas death Oboro admitted
to posing as Akira Nishida and confessed the being with Carina the night she was
hospitalized though stuck by his story that he had tried to help her after she became ill dropping her at the hospital
out of genuine concern with the evidence indisputably linking ybarra to carita ridgway's death formal charges were laid
against him for her murder in January 2001 an intensive search for Lucy Blackmun's body commenced throughout
Obama's numerous properties when the search proved fruitless police concentrated on the beaches caves and
coastline around oberus blue sea apartment building on the Miura Peninsula where police had been called
to investigate strange noises in the days following Lucy's disappearance the area had already been searched following
a Beres initial arrest but this time the search was much more extensive employing
the use of sniffer dogs into ground-penetrating radar approximately 180 meters from the blue
sea apartment building was an isolated cliff hidden from view of the nearby houses a portion of the cliff had eroded
and collapsed creating a small cave that could barely be seen two passers-by on the morning of February 9 2001 police
discovered the cave and found an old rusted bathtub within partially buried facedown in the sand they dug it up and
turned it over finding a plastic bag buried in the sand underneath there was no mistaking what
the bag contained human body parts the dismembered body appeared to have been cut with a chainsaw the skull then
encased in cement the estimation took several hours during which time the media learned of the discovery and quick
we gathered at the scene police constructed a makeshift marquee around the cave entrance the camera crews
hovered above the shoreline in helicopters and photographers boarded fishermen's boats to get the best angles
of the scene from the water Lucy's family in the UK were not notified by Japanese police that a
search was underway or that a body had been found only learning of the discovery as it was broadcast on
television a post-mortem examination of the body compared the victims teeth against to Lucy's dental records
revealing a match seven months since she was last seen alive Lucy Blackmon had finally been found the
deterioration of her remains were so extensive that no cause of death could be officially determined after Lucy's
remains were discovered her family traveled back to Japan to bring her home on March 19 2001 almost a year since she
first departed for Japan a funeral was held for Lucy Blackmon and Saint Nicholas Church in her hometown of
Chislehurst more than 260 friends and family members attended the service with a large media presence gathering outside
inside the church incense burped alongside a framed photograph of a smiling Lucy a gift from the Tokyo
Metropolitan Police Prime Minister Tony Blair and to the Japanese ambassador in London had flowers delivered to the
service to express their condolences many mourners were moved to tears during a touching performance of the ballads
wind beneath my wings and I will always love you Reverend Charles Walker told the
congregation Lucy was a glorious girl who can light up a room with her presence her vitality sense of life and
fun her laughing face her warm heart and concern for others he read from a letter
sent by a Japanese family who had lost their daughter while she was traveling in Europe they had been praying that
Lucy would be found liven whoa and stated we are so ashamed of ourselves as a nation outside the
church Lucy's mother Jane steer told a journalist I am pained by the thought of what happened to Lucy before she was
killed she was a tragic victim of a perverted psychopath and I cannot get the terrible thought of how she may have
suffered out of my mind as a mother I hope her death was painless and that she would have felt no fear on
April 6 2001 whilst in custody for the other allegations against him jouji ybarra was formally arrested for
lucy Blackmun's murder his trial commenced three months later on July 4 2001 where the public got their first
insight into the accused Obara was born to Korean immigrants in the Japanese city of Osaka in 1952
although his parents were poor when they arrived in Japan his father gradually built a fortune
investing in taxis car parks poker machines and property insuring Obara lived a privileged life he attended an
exclusive prep school in Tokyo before moving on to the prestigious ko University where his father purchased
him that denon chauffeur mansion and hired a maid to take care of him while he completed his studies when Obara was
17 years old his father died in Hong Kong during an overseas business trip which many speculated was at the hands
of the Yakuza with whom he was said to have business dealings his vast fortune was passed on to his children and
widowed endo Barra became incredibly wealthy after receiving his inheritance Jabara traveled internationally for
several years before obtaining degrees in politics and law he lived a lavishly in Tokyo and also purchased the multiple
properties all over the country which increased in value during Japan's bubble economy of the mid 1980s leading him to
form an investment company and to purchase several property development businesses
he frequently drive his luxury cars to high-end hostess clubs where he spent large sums of money to secure the
company of Western hostesses who served as a status symbol it was during this time that he established his sexually
predatory behavior and began keeping records of the women he assaulted when the economic bubble burst and the
Japanese economy collapsed in the early nineteen nineties Huaraz investment company folded into many of his assets
were decimated he was pursued by multiple creditors and reportedly used one of his companies as a front for
Yakuza money laundering operations the stay afloat financially by 1999 Jabara was being sued for unpaid loans yet he
still owned multiple companies and several residential properties this allowed him to continue his lavish
lifestyle where he frequently spent large amounts of time and money at hostess bars living a mostly nocturnal
existence cruising back and forth between his coastal and central Tokyo apartments Obara had an apparent dislike
for his own physical appearance he reportedly underwent extensive cosmetic eye surgery to make his eyes appear more
westernized and wore shoe lifts to disguise his five-foot five inch eye he also took a regular doses of human
growth hormones large quantities of which were found on his properties during police searches following his
arrest he avoided cameras his whole life refusing to be photographed wherever possible very few photos existed of
Obara where he was not intentionally looking away from the camera or wearing sunglasses even in his police mugshot he
kept his eyes cast to the ground as a garish trial commenced he faced charges for abduction eight cases of rape and
two rape resulting in death for Lucy Blackmon and Currier Ridgeway in the Japanese legal system the charge of rape
resulting in death is similar to manslaughter in that it doesn't carry the full of a murder charge defendants are also
invited to respond to the charges against them with a statement as opposed to a simple plea of guilty or not guilty
in oberus statement he denied being responsible for the death of me the woman alleging he and carita Ridgeway
had engaged in consensual sexual relations and that he had tried to save her by dropping her at the hospital
laughter she became ill he alleged Lucy Blackmon had invited herself to his apartment where she had tried to pursue
him they drank alcohol and to watch television together but didn't engage in any conquest play nor did he administer
her any drugs without her knowledge according to ybarra Lucy left his apartment the next morning alive and
well in the indictment for Lucy's death the prosecution put forward that on Saturday July 1 2000 her borough had
invited Lucy to his sushi marina apartment where he provided her with a drink laced with sleeping pills before
using chloroform to render her unconscious he then raped her and at some point during or after the assault
she passed away due to a fatal overdose of the drugs he had administered two days later Jabara called Louise Phillips
and to provided a fictional story about Lucy joining a cult to halt an investigation into her disappearance and
deflect any suspicion from himself on Tuesday July 4 he went to a hardware store to purchase a variety of materials
including hammers cutters sleeping bags tents a shovel a chainsaw cement and a chemical agent that speeds up the
setting process of cement the next day he drove to his blue sea' apartment on the Miura Peninsula where he dismembered
who is his body with a chainsaw covered her head in cement put her limbs into plastic bags and buried her remains in
the cave covering them with the bathtub a neighbor had seen him on the beach carrying a shovel while a tent uncovered
from the cave matched the one Jabara had purchased the marks on Lucy's bones were found to
be consistent with the same type of chainsaw he had bought despite the overwhelming amount of circumstantial
evidence against him in the Japanese justice system everything must be proven through concrete evidence before a
connection can be drawn between one event and the next for example just because Obara purchased the particular
maked model of a chainsaw that matched the marks found on Lucy's body it doesn't prove without doubt that he was
the one who killed her due to the deteriorated condition of Lisa's remains and to the fact that no
evidence was found of her being sexually assaulted amongst oberus possessions no
unquestionable physical link was established to prove without doubt that Obara murdered Lucy in a situation where
the accused denies any wrongdoing Japanese criminal trials can be exhaustive in 2001 Japan was not using a
jury system and - the court hearings did not run over a continuous period instead
giorgia borrows trial was overseen by a panel of judges over a series of monthly
hearings that continued for several years with the trial held up further Ueno borrows initial legal team resigned
after the first year as the prosecution strived to prove every aspect of the indictment the defense exploited the
lack of physical evidence they argued that not a single trace of Lucy's blood had been found anywhere at oberus
apartments rendering the notion that he had dismembered her body with a chainsaw
is highly unlikely when Obara eventually took the stand for Lucy's death he outraged her family by
alleging she had willingly consumed a large amount of recreational drugs and alcohol leading to an overdose he
claimed he had contacted a distant acquaintance who had since passed away to take Lucy to the hospital and he
didn't know what happened to her after that he explained he purchased the chainsaw and other tools used for
dismemberment with the intention to dispose of the body of his beloved pet the one police had found frozen inside
his Denon Chaffee mansion a few days after Lucy's overdose he spent the night walking around looking for a place to
dispose of his dog's body but was bitten extensively by bugs forcing him to cancel his plans hospital records
confirmed he did indeed seek medical treatment for bug bites for the charges relating to create a Ridgeway her beras
defense maintained to the conquest play between their client and the deceased had been consensual they argued that the
video where Corita was unconscious had been filmed months prior to her death during an established consensual
relationship on the night of her death they engaged in consensual sex before corrida fell ill and Obara did
everything he could to ensure she received a medical care the trial dragged on for several years during
which Barra turned his cell into a makeshift illegal office he had a team of 10 lawyers working for him in
relation to the criminal trial and further litigation involving debts owed to creditors across these various
companies during this time Obara was declared bankrupt with debts exceeding twenty three point eight
billion yen the equivalent to approximately 200 million Australian dollars the only visitors Obara received -
during his incarceration where his mother and his lawyers he was well behaved with one guard commenting my
impression is that he is totally sane there's nothing crazy about him except the way he treats women he's very very
clever but very selfish totally convinced that he is right and he never listens to the opinions of other people
he is a very lonely person when Lucy's father Tim Blackmon saw Obara in court for the first time he too was struck by
oberus sense of loneliness later commenting I see somebody who is the same age as me who has by his actions
produced the most terrible situation for himself but doing something so heinous to somebody else's life and in a very
strange way there's a pathos that neutralizes the more natural anger I feel sorry for him in April 2006
Pozzo burrows trial entered its fifth year who's his mother Jane father Tim and carita ridgeway's mother and net
provided evidence similar to a victim impact statement they each expressed the emotional
suffering and the life-changing trauma caused by the deaths of their daughters with Tim Blackman telling the court of
the devastating effects Lucy's death had on her sister Sophie who had since attempted self-harm
Obara who had studiously attended every hearing beforehand to take comprehensive
notes refused to leave his cell on the days when the families were speaking wedging himself into a small crevice so
he could not be physically removed by the guards as the trial continued Lucy's parents were contacted individually by
an associate of O Burroughs who wanted to discuss the possibility of an atonement payment based on the Japanese
honor system this kind of payment is offered following a wrongdoing to avoid dishonor being brought upon the
wrongdoers family it typically occurs when the party offering the payment admits guilt however in this case Obara
was admitting no guilt or responsibility for Lucy's death but offered the financial compensation as an expression
of his condolences whilst Lucy's mother Jane turned to the payment down unbeknownst to her her ex-husband
accepted 100 million yen approximately 1.2 million Australian dollars in today's currency would be paid to Tim
Blackman on the condition he signed a document written in poorly phrased English which called into question the
cause of Lucy's death as alleged by the prosecution thinking the risk of jeopardizing the case was negligible Tim
recognised the money would benefit his family and be vital in the ongoing running of the Lucy Blackman Trust and
not-for-profit organisation he had established to help young people be more aware of their safety when traveling
overseas he accepted the payment and signed to the document stating to me it was just a meaningless piece of paper
Lucy's body was so decomposed none of us knew the cause of death for certain after signing it Tim wrote a letter to
the prosecution categorically stating he believed Oboro was guilty of all charges
and to that accepting the money in no way signified any forgiveness towards the accused carita ridgway's family were
also offered a similar payment but turned it down Sophie Blackmun supported her father's decision to accept the
money stating don't--i used that money to pay back his family who gave us thousands of pounds so that we could
afford to fly back and forth to Japan over the last seven years he has also put a lot of it into the Lucy Blackman
trust which we set up in memory of Lucy during this emotionally exhausting period of public scrutiny Joe gia
borrows trial which had now been in the courts for six years finally drew to a conclusion on April 24 2007 her crowd
gathered in the public gallery of the Tokyo District Court has judged satto mutata he delivered the unanimous
verdict to reached by himself and to the two other judges presiding over the case
for the rape leading to death of curator Ridgeway and to the rapes of eight other
women judge Tochigi declared to Joji abara guilty and imposed a life sentence telling him quote he treated these women
as sexual objects to satisfy your last one opinion might be that these women were careless but I believed that they
could not anticipate your deviant behavior you repeated the same routine over eight years treating their lives
and their bodies carelessly it is rooted in your self-centered attitude you have
trampled on the dignity of women judge Tochigi then shocked the courtroom by announcing Obara was acquitted of the
charges relating to Lucy Blackmun's death citing a lack of evidence linking him to lose his murder and at the
disposal of her body judge Tochigi said while it was clear that Lucy had been with a bara prior to
her death the prosecution had not been able to prove without doubt that he was responsible judge Tochigi made
particular reference to the lack of evidence around the circumstances in which her body had been moved from the
site of her death to the cave where she was buried for these reasons the court was unable to fully discount the
possibility that someone else was involved they made it clear the document signed by Tim Blackman for the
condolence payment had nothing to do with the acquittal Lucy's family was devastated by the
verdict in a subsequent press conference Tim Blackman said I'm afraid to say the
lack of justice for us today has been the failure of the prosecution team to develop the case adequately there is
nothing that will change that Lucy is dead but in many respects Lucy has been robbed of her justice we believe our
family deserves to get proper justice for Lucy and to that prosecutors should strongly consider an appeal Lucy's
mother Jane's dear said I'm heartbroken absolutely heartbroken I just can't believe this verdict my worst fears have
come true the Ridgeway family stated they found comfort in O Burroughs life sentence as
it ensured he would no longer be able to harm innocent people both the defense center the prosecution appealed the
verdict with the defense maintaining oberus innocence on all charges and to the prosecution seeking another
opportunity to convict him for Lucy Blackmun's death after the appeal hearing in 2008
presiding judge here 'she Cardno ruled that georgie abara was guilty of kidnapping lucy with the intention of
drugging and raping her before dismembering her body at his sushi marina apartment however due to the lack
of physical evidence he upheld the finding of the original trial that declared Obara not guilty for causing
Lucy's death judge Cardno quote the Court recognizes that the defendant is responsible for damaging and abandoning
the body his action was ruthless and did not even give the slightest consideration to her dignity the court
believes the defendant kidnapped her with the intention of drugging and raping her but the court could not prove
he made her past hour by using chloroform or that he carried out his intentions judge Cardno upheld Oberoi's
life sentence and ruled out the possibility of any further appeals while the ruling didn't provide her Lucy's
family with the outcome they hoped for Tim Blackman told the press that Obara is now starting a life sentence for his
terrible crimes against the women over many decades and two that it was Lucy who finally brought him to justice his a
satisfactory overall result and I feel justice has finally been served Lucy's travel companion and a best
friend who Louise Phillips struggled in the years following Lucy's death tormented by guilt in an interview with
journalist Richard Boyd Perry for his book people who wait darkness she described the crushing weight of Lucy's
death as ever-present quote I felt guilty on my wedding day so guilty that I was getting married and she wasn't I
felt guilty for being happy guilty for getting older it seemed like it was my fault that I was here and she wasn't
in 2011 carita ridgway's mother annette brokered decades-long silence about the death of her daughter in an interview
with Australian magazine Women's Weekly during the interview and that candidly spoke of her fear that Obara would elude
justice calling the convicted killer her beast with a human face and that thinks
about her daughter often quote I try to be happy I know carita would want that I miss her
smile so I cling to that and try to be as happy as I can but it's not easy carita had her life stretching out
before her and to then it just stopped I lost my daughter and everything we'd ever share with her I'll never know the
grandchildren she might have had her future disappeared because one man wanted to satisfy some weird sexual urge
there's no closure not for me I won't have closure until that man is dead but even then I'm not sure that will help
nothing can bring carita back in the end that's all you're left with that immeasurable loss the Lucie Blackman
Trust is still in operation today providing support to British nationals in crisis overseas the organization
helps those dealing with death abduction sexual assault incidents of serious crime into missing person cases and has
assisted thousands of families facing international law deals Tim Blackman is currently in the process of raising
funds for a project titled Lucy's retreat which aims to provide a safe peaceful setting for the families of
missing people abroad to take rest by and to receive support the retreat will offer therapy
logistical problem-solving live link ups between courtrooms in the UK and around
for the world satellite news channels and feature a memorial garden where visitors are invited to create a peace
in memory of their loved ones that can be revisited over Tolan in August of 2018 as what would have been Lucy's 40th
birthday approached Tim Blackburn reflected on what he thought his life might have been like if she was still
alive he's convinced his bubbly and ambitious daughter would have built a successful career for herself
and to be raising a family of her own Tim Blackman quote every day you think about what she'd be doing now whether
she would be married whether I'd have grandchildren by her it leaves the constant chasm of emptiness when you
lose someone young like that you hear this word closure but it just doesn't exist in these sorts of cases the notion
that you just shut the door on that part of your life just doesn't happen as a father you don't want to put that burden
down [Music] [Music] you

Case 107: Lucie Blackman & Carita Ridgway

In early 2000, 21-year-old Lucie Blackman and her long-time best friend Louise Phillips devised a plan to spend a few months living and working in Japan...

CREDITS

Narration – Anonymous Host Researched and writing – Catherine Seccombe Editing – Elsha McGill Production, scoring – Mike Migas Additional scoring – Andrew Joslyn

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RESOURCES

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Brief Summary

Lucy Blackman vanished in Japan in 2000; Joji Obara was acquitted of her murder despite evidence linking him to her disappearance.

Key points

Lucy Blackman's Adventure. Lucy and her friend Louise move to Japan for adventure, but face unexpected challenges.
The Disappearance. Lucy goes missing after a date, leading to a frantic search by her friends and family.
Police Investigation Intensifies. Police ramp up efforts after discussions between world leaders.
Tim Blackmon's Desperation. Tim Blackmon meets a con artist who claims to know Lucy's whereabouts.
Witnesses Come Forward. Former hostesses report similar experiences, leading to new evidence.
Carita Ridgeway's Mysterious Death. Carita Ridgeway's sudden illness and death raise questions about her final moments in Tokyo.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

I just want to disappear.

Lucy's feelings of despair in her diary

10:31WatchFeb 23, 2019

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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